A campaign is afoot to ban the word “bossy”. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but isn’t that the bossiest idea ever?

The “Ban Bossy” movement is being led by Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook’s chief operating officer, and author of the alpha-female’s handbook, Lean In. “When a little boy asserts himself, he’s called a 'leader’,” claims the campaign website. “Yet when a little girl does the same, she risks being branded 'bossy’. Words such as 'bossy’ send a message: don’t raise your hand or speak up.”

A promotional video features such high-flying women as Condoleezza Rice, Beyoncé and Diane von Fürstenberg expounding movingly on how calling a girl bossy can “squash” her ambition. A moist-eyed Sandberg confides – one half-expects her to choke back a sob – that “When I was little, I was called bossy.”

The fact that this trauma clearly didn’t squash her one bit is beside the point. “By middle school,” declares a scientific-sounding voice-over, “girls are less interested in leadership than boys, and that’s because they worry about being called bossy.” I’d love to see the data proving that causation.

Normally, I’m all for a bit of feminist rabble-rousing. My daughter is only two, and already I find myself having to act as a psychological bodyguard against the constant, low-level sexism that comes her way. Recently, for instance, she was given two books of “Stories for Girls”, both with migraine-inducing pink covers heavily encrusted in glitter and swirls. Heaven forfend that she should read about something other than fairies and princesses.

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The children’s publisher Michael O’Mara said this week that gender-specific children’s books are the way of the future, because – more science here – boys and girls are “definitely different”. His own company, Buster Books, segregates children even before they can read: hence, the Brilliant Boys’ Colouring Book (featuring rockets, submarines, planets and microbes) versus the Beautiful Girls’ Colouring Book (dollies, flowers, horses and more blasted fairies).

It is this casual, ubiquitous narrowing of female horizons that enrages me. But bossy? Bossy is a good thing. My daughter’s fabulous bossiness is precisely the quality that will – I hope –enable her to rise above Michael O’Mara’s passive, saccharine template of femininity.

When I see her barking out orders to her older brothers – “Sleep! Wake up! Light off! Light on! Dancing!” – tears of pride dim my eyes. Long may she shout, “No, yuk!” at unwanted offerings from boys. May her purposeful bustle carry her undaunted into the boardrooms of the FTSE 100, and may she execute her Miss Piggy-style karate chop (“Hiiiiiiiiii-ya!”) upon any man who dares try to halt her.

Unlike most of the words used to undermine girls and women – slut, nag, airhead, crazy, frigid – bossy has its etymological roots in something strong and positive. “I’m not bossy,” declares Beyoncé in the campaign video. “I’m the boss.” It’s a lovely soundbite, but an inversion of the truth. It’s a boss’s job to be bossy. You don’t get to be the boss without bossing.

It’s possible that in America, where the word bossy comes from, it has acquired meaner connotations. But in Britain it is generally used in a fond, amused or admiring way. At worst, it might be seen as mildly chiding.

Instead of banning it, Sandberg and her gang – none of whom, one suspects, could have smashed through the glass ceiling without a strong bossy streak – ought to reclaim it. Polish it up and launch it back into the English language, not as an insult, but as the highest praise. Bossy and proud: that’s what I’d like my girl to be.